Total War: Warhammer III Daemon Prince guide – Reign of Chaos magic spells and ideal army composition
Let’s discuss suggested army compositions and the Reign of Chaos magic spells for the Daemon Prince in Total War: Warhammer III.
Army composition: Gathering your warp-twisted hordes
Now would be a good time to discuss an ideal army composition.
- Melee infantry: Chaos Warriors and Bloodletters of Khorne – They’re heavily armored and shielded, and they pack quite a punch. These guys are your meatshields. You may also add a couple of Plaguebearers of Nurgle, if you want, so they can debuff opponents with poison.
- Ranged infantry: Pink Horrors of Tzeentch – They’ve got a Barrier mechanic to protect them, and they can quickly burst down your foes.
- Flankers and/or cavalry: Daemonettes of Slaanesh and/or Seekers – You don’t want to use Slaaneshi units as is. They’ve got great armor-piercing capabilities, but their pitiful defenses mean they’ll take heavy losses, too, if they clash with foes. Instead, you can bring them to bear once your opponent has been pinned down.
- Flying units: Chaos Furies – Chaos Furies are cheap and viable, and you can even summon them 10 times in each battle if you choose the Chaos Undivided path. You’ll mostly use flying units to harass distant siege cannons or archers/gunners, so they won’t require a ton of investment. If you really do need mid-tier recruits, you can pick the Plague Drones of Nurgle.
- Artillery: Skull Cannon of Khorne – Not a lot of options, but the Skull Cannon gets the job done in sieges.
- Soul Grinder: Nurgle or Tzeentch – Another alternative for sieges or long-range devastation would be the Soul Grinder. Tzeentch’s Soul Grinder has the most range for warpfire projectiles, whereas Nurgle’s will blast enemies with corrosive decay.
- Hero: Plagueridden or Alluress – The Plagueridden (Nurgle) can be used for healing, speed/charge debuffs, massive explosions, and damage reflection. However, the Alluress (Shadow) has the deadly Penumbral Pendulum and Pit of Shades. The spells can rip apart enemies once they’re in a fixed position. The Iridescent Horror (Tzeentch) is also okay for spellcasting. Unfortunately, the rest of Tzeentch’s roster is fairly lacking (even with Barrier buffs and decent range).
- Generic lord: Herald of Nurgle or Herald of Slaanesh – Again, it boils down to preference. Do you want healing and troll-like debuffs, or would you prefer multi-kill spells? Bear in mind that your generic lords can turn into exalted daemons later in the campaign.
- High-tier monster: Great Unclean One or Keeper of Secrets – Same as above, though you’ll only have access to a couple of spells that can’t be overcast.
Remember that only the province capital will have access to high-tier buildings that provide better units. If you just need the basic stuff, you can make do with minor settlement dedications to a particular god. Likewise, my advice is to stick to a couple of provinces instead of rapidly expanding (due to Chaos Rifts popping up all over the place). As such, you’ll want to plan ahead when it comes to the types of units you’ll want to recruit.
However, it’s also viable to recruit units from an ally via the new outpost mechanic, though there are caveats. First, each army is limited to only four units from alliances. Second, it’s that you’ll need to level up outposts, wait for an ally to improve their settlement further, and gain more alliance points to recruit high-end stuff. Lastly, if an ally’s faction is completely obliterated, then you won’t be able to recruit their units anymore. In my experience, Skarbrand and Ku’gath often ended up down for the count. N’kari (who killed off Skarbrand in my runs) was more successful, so I could grab extra Daemonettes/Seekers without constructing the buildings for them.
Activating the Reign of Chaos magic spells
Whenever you’re engaged in battles, you’ll see the Reign of Chaos mechanic represented by three army spells to the right of your screen. The meter will increase over time as long as any friendly lord (including generics and reinforcements) deal damage to foes. You can then use a low-tier spell, or wait until you reach tier 3 for an even stronger ability. These don’t require Winds of Magic at all.
Just remember that the spells you’re handed tend to be random. However, there are talents that improve the RNG chances of spells from certain deities.
Tier 1:
- Khorne: Horn of Khorne – AoE melee attack buff.
- Nurgle: Curse of the Slug – Speed debuff chain effect.
- Slaanesh: Narcissism – Prevent a unit from moving.
- Tzeentch: Arcane Surge – Winds of Magic recharge rate.
Tier 2:
- Khorne: Relentless Rage – Unbreakable and unkillable entities.
- Nurgle: Fecundity – Healing chain effect.
- Slaanesh: Fascination – Direct damage and rampage effect.
- Tzeentch: Bolt of Change – Magical bombardment.
Tier 3:
- Khorne: Blade of Khorne – Explosive spell.
- Nurgle: Rot, Glorious Rot – Direct damage with chain effect.
- Slaanesh: Sweet Sorrow – AoE buff for speed and vigor.
- Tzeentch: Storm of Fire – Magical bombardment.
All right, let’s move to the next part of our Total War: Warhammer III Daemon Prince guide where we’ll discuss Daemonic Glory and the gear pieces, units, buffs, and mechanics that can be obtained from the Chaos Gods.
Total War: Warhammer III is available via Steam, Epic Games, and the Xbox Game Pass for PC.
